Shimon Schocken
Discussion Board post for English 201 - Non Fiction Writing
Be a Mensch!
It’s
rather odd that I am choosing to write about Shimon Schocken’s, “The self-organizing
computer course”. I am so far from a
computer-type-person that it’s not even funny.
I have The Zone (Boise State University's on campus IT tech support) on speed dial, and we are practically on first name
basis. So why would I write about how to
build your own computer? (The thought of which makes me shutter!) Well, this gentleman, “had me at hello”. “Self-learner”, “Self-study”, “self-exploration”,
“self-empowerment”, “community building”, these are the gems that caught my
eye.
Long
story short, he surrounds himself with brilliant, open-minded thinkers, who don’t
mind failing. Dr.
Scholcken and his team came up with something they called “Nand to Tetris”,
which is a free online class, with all the necessary tools to build your own
computer and then write code to create games.
And this, all before anyone had heard of a MOOC (Massive Open On-line Courses). So now, I’m writing well beyond my expertise. Let me rein it in.
I
feel strongly that anyone can take his basic principles and apply them to life. I love his parting
statement that he found as graffiti on a wall in Tel Aviv years ago, “High
tech, schmai tech, the most important thing is to be a mensch!” (Mensch is a person of integrity and honor)
He states, “In the end, it’s all about people”.
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